The poll, conducted by Zogby International and commissioned by the business-led Committee for Economic Development (CED), surveyed 301 business leaders and presents a somewhat counter-intuitive look at their opinions of the current state of nondisclosure in the political campaign finance system. Highlights pointed out by the Committee for Economic Development include:

Seventy-seven percent believe that corporations should disclose all of their direct and indirect political expenditures, including money provided to third party organizations to be spent on campaign ads. The poll also found that ninety-three percent of business leaders believe that corporate boards should be informed of the beneficiaries and purposes of the company’s direct and indirect political spending. Two-thirds polled agreed with the statement: “the lack of transparency and oversight in corporate political activity encourages behavior that puts corporations at legal risk and endangers corporate reputations.”

“This poll underscores what business people across America already know: the political system is broken and large amounts of money are flooding the system and corrupting the democratic process,” said Ed Kangas, a CED Trustee and the former Chairman and CEO of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, in a statement. “These huge undisclosed contributions that pay for campaign ads are distorting the political process and are a major reason why Congress has become so dysfunctional.”

I hadn’t heard of CED before reading about the results of this survey. The group’s Board of Trustees contains a lot of heavy hitters, however, including representatives from Yahoo!, Delta Airlines, the Boston Consulting Group, McKinsey & Company, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, and it describes itself as a “non-profit, non-partisan business led public policy organization.” Whether it has the ability to exert any political weight in a potentially renewed fight in Congress for disclosure is unclear at this point.

It makes a measure of sense, however, why some companies might be upset with the new system: With more opportunities to give, companies that would rather use their treasuries for other purposes might feel increased pressure to keep up with rival businesses or industries in playing the contributions game. This in turn creates an arms race in which more and more business and labor interests are dragged into the political fight when they could be spending their money more productively. With greater restrictions, at least they could be assured of an even playing field.

Health care reform is more than a social imperative – it is an economic necessity. A new study by the President’s Council of Economic Advisers demonstrates that the current American health care system is on an unsustainable path. Without health care reform, American workers and families will continue to experience eroding health care benefits and stagnating wages caused by the pressure of escalating health insurance premiums. And without reform, rising spending on Medicare and Medicaid will lead to massive and unsustainable Federal budget deficits.

Years of diagnosis on the ills of the U.S. health system have produced no cure. Health care expenditures in this country are currently 18 percent of GDP and, without change, will keep rising, until they account for nearly one-third of our total output by 2040.

None of this is news, of course. Health care experts have warned for years that medical spending is rising at rates that would swamp the economy in a few short decades. Still, it’s a clever strategy.

Supporters of an overhaul of the nation’s health care system have been screaming for years about the failure of a system that would leave more than 45 million Americans — roughly one in six — without health coverage. That is, they’ve been focusing on the health and social implications of inaction — to no avail. Largely the inaction is symptomatic of the lobbying prowess of the medical-industrial complex, but it’s surely significant that most of those 45 million people lacking insurance are of low and moderate incomes — not the type of folks who hold enormous sway in Washington.

By re-framing the health policy debate as an economic issue affecting everyone, Democrats are hoping to rally the type of popular support they’ll certainly require to pass such sweeping reforms.